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Convoy of Gas Guzzling Trucks Imposes Blockade on Tesla Dealership

Convoy of Gas Guzzling Trucks Imposes Blockade on Tesla Dealership

Yahoo15-04-2025

What happens when you combine an electric vehicle oligarch with coal rolling trucks, the Proud Boys, and a nation that confuses commerce with patriotism?
A mind-boggling car dealership blockade, for starters.
With Tesla Takedown protests entering their third consecutive month, a picket line near the Rocklin, California Tesla dealership isn't exactly an uncommon sight. The Northern California Tesla store had been picketed a handful of times before, mostly by peaceful protestors expressing their anger with the Trump administration and its DOGE appointee, Elon Musk.
But this week's protest came with a kicker: a line of lifted — and decidedly gas-powered — trucks blocking the lane leading to the dealership.
https://twitter.com/iAnonPatriot/status/1911758649959023093
A video uploaded to X-formerly-Twitter by user "American AF" shows a convoy of over 20 non-electric trucks and SUVs — many sporting MAGA and American flags — lined up to block the showroom. Some counter-protestors erected awnings and chairs along the road, waving flags and munching on snacks. Even the Proud Boys, an occasionally violent neo-fascist group, were in attendance, according to Electrek.
"MAGA patriots DEFEND a Tesla dealership from liberal terrorlsts [sic]," the semi-viral post reads.
If their goal was to support Tesla — and by extension Musk — it's unclear how blockading the EV store with gas-guzzling pickup trucks accomplishes that. Tesla's sales are in the ditch these days, a detail apparently lost on the guys blocking customers from entering the dealership.
"What an inviting retail experience," quipped one user, continuing that "it's telling that none of the trumps [sic] drive a tesla."
Regardless, the patriots remained in their lane, maintaining control. "How all the little libs stay away when the big boys come out to play!" cheered user "@justusecomsense."
"Tulsa Rocks!" saluted another.
The Takedown protest, meanwhile, looked relatively calm, with picketers holding signs on the opposite side of the road, undeterred by the drama.
As a whole, the Tesla Takedown protests have been overwhelmingly tame, often heavily attended by older liberals. The movement's campaign page on the platform Action Network goes out of its way to call itself a "peaceful protest movement," which opposes "violence, vandalism, and destruction of property."
Though vandalism and arson have erupted around the world in retaliation to Elon Musk's role in the US government, organizers of Tesla Takedown have gone out of their way to distance themselves from the destruction.
That might not stop Musk, Tesla, and the government from placing Takedown protestors under surveillance, however, as the FBI's Tesla Task Force busts down doors across the nation to crack down on property damage.
Here's a thought: if the flag-wavers are so worried about Tesla that they'd take time off of work to defend a parking lot, maybe they could put a little skin in the game and trade their 4x4s for one of Musk's EVs. After all, it's the patriotic thing to do.
More on Tesla: Tesla's Head of Software Departs as Robotaxi Reveal Looms

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The White House Is Delighted With Events in Los Angeles
The White House Is Delighted With Events in Los Angeles

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time29 minutes ago

  • Atlantic

The White House Is Delighted With Events in Los Angeles

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Conor Friedersdorf: Averting a worst-case scenario in Los Angeles State and local authorities typically use law-enforcement personnel as a first response to civil disturbances or riots, followed by National Guard forces if needed. Retired Major General Randy Manner, who served as acting vice chief of the National Guard Bureau during the Obama administration, said the federalizing of California Guard forces—putting them under presidential rather than state control, a move allowed with certain limits—pulls those service members away from their civilian jobs and makes it harder to complete planned training or exercises. 'Basically, the risk does not justify the investment of these forces, and it will negatively impact on readiness,' Manner told us. Retired officers we spoke with also drew a distinction between the involvement of National Guard and active-duty forces. 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When Representative Betty McCollum, a Minnesota Democrat, asked the defense secretary what the cost of the California deployment would be, he declined to provide a figure and instead pivoted to criticism of Minnesota Governor Tim Walz for the state's response to the violence that followed Floyd's killing in 2020. (Military officials said later they expected the Los Angeles deployment, as envisioned, to cost roughly $134 million.) 'If you've got millions of illegals, you don't know where they're coming from, they're waving flags from foreign countries and assaulting police officers, that's a problem,' Hegseth told lawmakers. Trump, for his part, told reporters that anyone who tries to protest at the Saturday parade celebrating the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army will 'be met with very big force.' He also said that he wouldn't hesitate to invoke the Insurrection Act, which would permit him to employ the military for law enforcement or to suppress a rebellion, if he believed that circumstances required. Speaking to troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina later in the day, the president promised to stop the 'anarchy' in California. ' We will liberate Los Angeles and make it free, clean, and safe again,' he said. 'We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.' Some Republicans have privately expressed worry that Trump may overplay a winning hand. Even in the West Wing, two people we spoke with tried to downplay the incendiary rhetoric from Trump and Hegseth. They stressed that, to this point, National Guard forces have been in a defensive posture, protecting federal buildings. Although they believe that Trump has the political advantage at the moment, they acknowledged there would be real risks if U.S. troops got involved in violence. 'We don't know who would get blamed but no one wins if that happens,' one senior aide told us. 'No one wants to see that.' Hegseth's support for using active-duty troops in Los Angeles stands in contrast to what his predecessor did in 2020. At that time, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, along with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley, scrambled to block Trump's desire to employ active-duty forces against the demonstrators protesting racial violence. The president had mused about shooting protesters in the legs, Esper wrote later. To satisfy his boss while also avoiding a dangerous confrontation, the defense chief called active-duty forces from Fort Bragg to Northern Virginia but sought to keep them out of the fray. Tom Nichols: Trump is using the National Guard as bait In his 2024 book The War on Warrior s, Hegseth described how his experience as a D.C. Guardsman in 2020 crystallized his views about the divide between military personnel and what he saw as the degenerate protesters who were lobbing bricks and bottles of urine at the citizen soldiers. When the D.C. Guard was again summoned seven months later, to help secure the 2021 inauguration following the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, Hegseth was told to stand down because fellow Guardsmen suspected that one of his tattoos was a sign of extremism. (Hegseth has maintained it is part of his Christian faith.) Hegseth was angered by his exclusion and resigned from the Guard. That experience remains with him as he attempts to reshape the military, and its role in society, in line with Trump's worldview. As he has written: 'My trust for this Army is irrevocably broken.'

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